College of Arts & Sciences

Faculty News

SUMMER-FALL 2015

Scholarship in the College of Arts & Sciences includes professional advancements,
accomplishments, appointments and the progress of ongoing endeavors.

Hayhoe a HuffPo Climate Champion

Katharine Hayhoe, Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of TTU's Climate Science Center, was named one of the Huffington Post's "20 Champions of Climate Change" in a Dec. 3 article. Among other names on the list were marine biologist Sylvia Alice
Earle, first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;
former President of Mexico Felipe Calderon; actor Leonardo DiCaprio; atmospheric physicist
Lames Hansen, formerly of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Jamie Henn,
activist and co-founder of 350.org; glaciologist Jean Robert Petit; and President
of Brazil Dilma Rousseff.

Alquist Finds Free Will Affects Regret

Jessica Alquist, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, was principal author of "The makings of might-have-beens: Effects of belief about
free will on counterfactual thinking," in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
(Vol. 41, December 2015). The study found that people with a greater belief in free
will generated more ways that a situation could have turned out differently than people
with less belief in free will, suggesting that people's philosophical beliefs can
affect how they reflect on their experiences.

McIntyre Wants to Up Bee Populations

Nancy McIntyre, Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, is on a research team looking for answers to the decline in bee populations. The
three-year study is funded by a $380,579 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service.
McIntyre is collaborating with these faculty from TTU's College of Agricultural Sciences
& Natural Resources: Scott Longing, Assistant Professor and lead researcher; Robert
Cox, Associate Professor; Cynthia McKenny, Rockwell Endowed Professor; and Charles
West, Thornton Distinguished Chair.

Marshall Studies Memories of Pets

Philip Marshall, Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, was lead author of "Earliest memories of pets predict adult attitudes: phenomenological,
structural, and textual analyses" in the Human-Animal Interaction Bulletin (Vol. 3,
No. 1, 2015). The study examined adults' recollections of their earliest pet-related
childhood experiences and found that people who recalled memories of their own pet
and described more interactive pet memories had more positive adult attitudes towards
pets.

Gao to Host Nigerian Researcher

Weimin Gao, Associate Professor of Molecular Epidemiology and Associate Chair of the Department of Environmental Toxicology/ The Institute for Environmental & Human Health, was selected as one of only two professors in the United States to serve as host
in the 2016 Global Senior Scholar Exchange Program (GSSEP), supported by The Society of Toxicology's education committee. (The other host is Mohamed Abou-Donia, Duke University Medical
Center.) Gao will host and collaborate with Oladipo Ademuyiwa of the Federal University
of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Gao, and Texas Tech, were chosen because the
Department of Environmental Toxicology/The Institute for Environmental & Human Health
has a well-established research program in the areas of molecular toxicology, analytical
toxicology, ecotoxicology, aquatic toxicology, and human health. The Federal University
of Agriculture currently does not have a curriculum in toxicology, so it is expected
that Ademuyiwa's learning about the Texas Tech program will prove valuable.

Solís Leads USAID Mapping Project

Patricia Solís, Research Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences, is project director for the new Mapping For Resilience University Consortium, a
program meant to create and use spatial data to solve real-world development needs.
TTU received $1 million for the project from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and will establish
a consortium of universities—George Washington University and West Virginia University—to
bring the project to fruition through a network of student mappers.

Phillips, Baker Study 'Vampire Gene'

Caleb Phillips, Assistant Professor, and Robert Baker, Horn Professor Emeritus, both of the Department of Biological Sciences, published new research in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution entitled "Secretory gene recruitments in vampire bat salivary adaptation and potential
convergences with sanguivorous leeches." Their research presents evidence that other
species, not just vampire bats, may have the capacity to evolve what is popularly
called the "vampire gene." The researchers told TexasTechToday that the the genes found in the saliva of vampire bats also can be found in humans and most other animals. However, the vampire bat is unique
among vertebrates because it feeds only on the blood of other mammals. Phillips, who
also is curator of genetic resources at the Natural Science Research Laboratory, and Baker, who also is curator of mammals emeritus at the Natural Science Research
Laboratory, said some of the venomous contents in the bats' saliva likely evolved
by recruiting ancestral genes to produce new transcript molecules rather than by creating
completely new gene sequences.

Grzankowski to Study in Cambridge

Alex Grzankowski, Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, has been appointed to the "New Directions in the Study of the Mind" research initiative
at Cambridge University from 2015-2017. The project, supported by the John Templeton
Foundation, aims to investigate questions about intentionality and consciousness from
a non-physicalist, non-reductive perspective and includes a weekly seminar in Cambridge,
a number of workshops and a major conference.

Kolosov Receives Award for Essays

Jacqueline Kolosov, Professor in the Department of English, received the highly competitive and prestigious Mary Roberts Rinehart Award from
Stillhouse Press for her collection of essays, "Motherhood, and the Places Between."
Kolosov's collection of linked essays explores the inevitability of change through
the lens of motherhood and infertility, loss and grief, and the power of self-transformation. Individual
essays have been published in leading journals including The Sewanee Review, Bellevue
Literary Review, and Terrain.org. "I have always written through all my experiences, so I knew I would write through
this one," Kolosov told TexasTechToday, referring to her experiences with in vitro fertilization, miscarriage and the loss
of two close friends to cancer. Kolosov expanded the memoir of loss, healing and renewal
though her long attraction to the writings of Virginia Woolf and to a newfound love
of horseback riding, the article said.

Weiss to Study Severe Storms

Chris Weiss, Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences' Atmospheric Science Group, is on a research team to study how temperature, humidity
and other observations impact the development of storms. The project is being funded
by a $346,246 grant from the National Science Foundation. He will be using drones
to help predict severe storms. "The short-term goals will be a better understanding of the fundamental predictability of severe thunderstorms and
tornadoes," Weiss told TexasTechToday. "The hope is that there will be consistent signals of observables that correlate
well with the likelihood of tornado production." The project will look first at how
variables such as temperature and humidity at a given time may influence the later
evolution of severe storms. Knowing the level of sensitivity in that relationship
may help determine which observations impact storm severity.

Sand to Find Young Supernovae

David Sand, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics, received received a $538,039 grant from the National Science Foundation for his project, "Unveiling
the Physics and Progenitors of Cosmic Explosions with a One Day Cadence Supernova
Search." The project's goal is to find supernovae within a day of when they exploded,
then trace each one's history to understand what type of star it was. "There's a whole zoo of different types of supernovae and we don't have a clear mapping
of what stars become what supernovae," Sand told TexasTechToday. Sand and his students will focus on 400 galaxies per night, with a goal of finding
10 supernovae each year. The team hopes to measure the temperature, chemical abundance
and radius of the star that exploded. Ultimately, that information should help astronomers
anticipate which stars become which type of supernovae. The award started Sept. 15
and is expected to run through August 2018.

Schroeder Co-authored Bill Renewal

John Schroeder, Professor of Atmospheric Science in the Department of Geosciences and TTU's National Wind Institute, assisted in writing House Resolution 23, the National
Windstorm Impact Reduction Program in 2013. This year, Congress passed, and President
Barack Obama signed in to law Sept. 30, the continuation of the program as the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act Reauthorization of 2015. The law was created to help improve the understanding and effects of windstorms
and how to reduce their damaging impact.

Kiesling Testified for Bill Reneweal

Ernst Kiesling, Research Professor at TTU's National Wind Institute and Executive Director of the National Storm Shelter Association, testified before
the House Science, Space and Technology committee in 2013 on behalf of House Resolution
23, the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program in 2013. This year, Congress passed,
and President Barack Obama signed in to law Sept. 30, the continuation of the program
as the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act Reauthorization of 2015. The law was created to help improve the understanding and effects of windstorms
and how to reduce their damaging impact.

Zak Tracks Big Bend Damage at Event

John Zak, Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Associate Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, and Co-Director of Texas Tech's Climate Science Center, was September's featured speaker for the Climate Science Center's “Science by the
Glass” off-campus lecture series. His topic, “How to Damage a National Park Without
Really Trying: The Tale of Big Bend,” attracted a standing-room-only crowd to Lubbock's
Lantern Tavern, where he used photos, charts and graphs to explain how pollutants from as far away
as Chicago find their way to Big Bend National Park, with devastating results.

Allen Delivers Kovalevsky Lecture

Linda Allen, Horn Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics, was honored Aug. 13 for her contributions to the field by the Association of Women in Mathematics (AWM) and the Society for Industrial and
Applied Mathematics (SIAM). Each year, the two groups jointly present the Sonia Kovalevsky
Lectureship award to a woman who has made significant contributions to applied or
computational mathematics. The award includes Allen delivering a lecture in Beijing
during the 8th International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Tang Studies 'Mindful Meditation'

Yi-Yuan Tang, Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, has published a review of addiction research in Trends in Cognitive Sciences. The
article, republished by CNN Philippines and in the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that people with addictive behaviors, such as smoking, may boost their
self-control with mindful meditation, even among smokers who don't intend to quit.
Tang, lead author, compared this form of mental training focuses on becoming self-aware
of one's experience and can improve areas in the brain related to self-control. According to the Pakistan Daily Times, the researchers recruited 60 undergraduate
students, 27 cigarette smokers and 33 nonsmokers, to participate in an integrative body-mind
training program that included relaxation training techniques. Tang said that the
students changed their smoking behavior, but were not aware of it. When researchers
showed the data to a participant who claimed to have smoked 20 cigarettes, this person
checked a pocket and was shocked to find 10 left. Two weeks after the study—even though
many of the students said they smoked the same number of cigarettes before and after
the training—those who received mindfulness meditation were found to have reduced
smoking by 60 percent.

Pappas Named Administrative Fellow

Dimitri Pappas, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, has been named President's Administrative Fellow by TTU President M. Duane Nellis and will assume the fellowship beginning Sept. 1, 2015 and ending May 31, 2016. During
that time, Pappas will report directly to President Nellis and interact with the President's
Executive Council. Nellis developed the program to give selected faculty members an
opportunity to enhance their professional experiences by working as an administrator
within an academic environment. "My duties will be to work on one or more projects
in the president's office in order to advance the university," Pappas said. "I will
work within his office and across campus to reach the goals set out at the start of
the fellowship."

Talley Study Examines Alcohol Risk

Amelia E. Talley, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, led a new study on the risks of alcohol abuse among non-heterosexual women. The
study, titled "Longitudinal Associations among Discordant Sexual Orientation Dimensions
and Hazardous Drinking in a Cohort of Sexual Minority Women," published in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. and was covered by Science Daily and the Lubbock Avalanche Journal. "There's a lot of research that shows people who are not heterosexual—that is, those
who are bisexual, gay or lesbian—have higher levels of alcohol-use disorders," Tally
said, "but it was not clear what explains that disparity aside from looking at the
fact that they identify as non-heterosexual..." Talley's study searched for reasons.
Data came from the Chicago Health and Life Experience of Women (CHLEW) study, which
followed a group of self-identified lesbians from 2000-2010. That study was led by
Tonda L. Hughes, who also was involved with Talley's study.

Swingen Talks 'Ben Franklin's World'

Abigail Swingen, Assistant Professor in the Department of History, was interviewed by Liz Covart on "Ben Franklin's World," a program dedicated to
early American history. The interview focused on Swingen's first book, titled "Competing Visions of Empire: Labor, Slavery, and the Origins of the British
Atlantic Empire." In her book, and during the interview, Swingen approaches the topic
of how and where the North American and Caribbean colonies fit within the British
Empire. Her answers come through very different viewpoints: that of British imperial
officers, and that of colonists who lived in the North American and Caribbean colonies.

Stoll Blogs About Teddy Roosevelt

Mark Stoll, Associate Professor in the Department of History and Director of Environmental Studies at Texas Tech, has posted a July 5 blog, headlined
"The Christian Roots of Modern Environmentalism," to TIME Magazine's Zocalo Public Square column. Stoll credits President Theodore Roosevelt and his "profoundly moralistic worldview"
for planting the seeds of environmental fervor. Stoll points out that, although recent
biographers overlook Teddy Roosevelt's religious life, his contemporaries recognized
him as "the greatest preacher of righteousness in modern times," according to one
friend, who went on to describe the president as one who "made right living seem the
natural thing, and there was no man beyond the reach of his preaching and example."
Stoll's blog sets Roosevelt's views in context by remarking that many national leaders
of the Progressive Era shared them.

McBee is Go-To on Motorcycle Riders

Randy D. McBee, Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences and Associate Professor in the Department of History, continues to serve as a source of reliable quotes about people who ride motorcycles.
In the aftermath of the biker shootout in Waco, McBee's new book, titled "Born to
be Wild: The Rise of the American Motorcyclist," has most recently attracted interviews
of McBee from numerous national and international media, most recently from Al Jazeera and The Wall Street Journal.

Hayhoe a Top 10 Environmental Leader

Katharine Hayhoe, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of TTU's Climate Science Center, has been named a Top 10 Environmental Leader by the Huffington Post. Hayhoe received the recognition for her work in bridging the communication gaps
about climate change to the general public. Others who made the list include May Boeve,
executive director of 350.org; Julian McQueen, director of education and outreach
at Green for All; Jane Kleeb, director of Bold Nebraska; Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr.,
president and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus; Adrianna Quintero, executive director of
Voces Verdes and a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council; Heidi
Cullen, chief scientist for Climate Central; Alex Honnold, free-solo rock climber;
Billy Parish, founder and CEO of Mosaic; and Kandi Mossett, native energy and climate
campaign organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Still Receives Commercialization Award

Brian Still, Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Director of TTU's Usability Research Lab (URL), was selected to receive the 2015 President's Excellence in Commercialization Award.
Still was chosen for developing and bringing to market a mobile eye-tracking technology.
Still, working alongside his graduate research assistant, Nathan Jahnke (PhD 2012),
developed an eye tracking and control research system in 2010. Their creation spun
off into a startup company, Grinbath, that licensed from TTU the invention they created
in the URL. To date, Still, Jahnke, and the Grinbath team have generated five patents. After
raising necessary funding, Grinbath began to make and then sell worldwide its first
product, EyeGuide Tracker, in 2011. The following year it began to sell EyeGuide Assist,
providing customers with limited or no hand functionality the ability to control a
computer mouse with their eyes. Before the year was out, Still debuted Grinbath's
next generation invention, EG, at a Tedx presentation in Lubbock. EG is now delivered to customers as a research tool. Grinbath clients include Google,
PayPal, and Oxford University. Continuing research and collaboration could customize
the technology to detect concussions, supplement wheelchair control, and even serve
as a gaming platform.